Loving the Monday!

Okay, that may be a little bit of an exaggeration.

More like this:

Either way, Monday has its benefits:

- Fresh start of a new week!
- A chance to get organized.
- A chance to get back into the routine, if you had a crazy weekend...

So, I'm starting off the week successfully. Here are the things I did to increase my chances that things will go as planned (remember, planning + flexibility...)

1. Prepared my meals for Monday through Friday. Every meal. (I'll do a post on that later, with some tips. Seriously- it's the best thing I do. Besides parent effectively, of course).
2. Planned my workouts.
3. Made my to-do list

Now, I realize (AGAIN) that even the best planned week can change....

How are you making sure your week starts off right?

Step by Step

I work at a University, and this week is our Spring Break. While librarians don't get a week off, we do get Friday off. I decided to take an additional day off this week so I could work on some home organizing. Wednesday was my day.

I don't think anyone really wants to be surrounded by clutter and chaos. I think most people just get so overwhelmed they don't know where to start, so they just don't. Hmmm... kind of like weight loss.

The key is: ONE STEP AT A TIME!

Once I realized that I could not completely clean and organize my home in one day, but I could do one thing a little bit at a time, things started to seem a little more manageable.

I knew that by the end of the day Wednesday, I would not be done with everything I wanted to do. But, I made a list of the things I wanted to do. These included:

- Master Bathroom (Clean, organize, throw away stuff)
- Linen Closet
- Kids' Clothes (these were all in chaos...)

As for the stuff I got rid of:

I either threw it in a garbage bag (trash) or put it in the "giveaway" pile. The sorting of the "giveaway" pile- what goes to Goodwill, what goes to folks with little boys or little girls, etc- will happen another day.

Here's the "giveaway" pile:

Again with the brilliant photography. Oh, that lighting.

I feel great, having accomplished the little tasks for today, and feel like I'm on the road to having a more organized home. There is just something so exciting to me about organizing and throwing stuff out.... it's probably a librarian thing.

So, work again on Thursday, and just the basic "get through the day" stuff: laundry, dinner, empty dishwasher, scrub kitchen sink... and on Friday, I have another list (plus a 10 mile run...)

You can do anything one step at a time. You can run a mile one step at a time. You can lose 100 pounds 1-2 pounds at a time. You can get a college degree (or 3, like I did) one class at a time. You can pay off unbelievable amounts of student loans one dollar at a time (these last two may or may not be related).

You can do it. YOU CAN DO IT!

So, next time you're faced with a huge, overwhelming task, think how you can break it into steps. I promise,  you'll make more progress than you would if you sat around worrying about it.